I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 94

The kind of luck that would never have happened if Edith was still a ‘villainous supporting character.’

‘When the hell did it get this big? Damn!

I should have seen it coming when I saw Edith survive the yacht incident last time.

I thought it was because it happened right in front of Killian’s eyes that he was able to save her, but I didn’t realize it was the kind of ‘luck’ that only happens to the main characters.

No, I don’t want to admit that this world has a female lead other than Lizé.

‘It’s really dangerous now.’

This is no time to keep my pride up.

With this failure, K’s control of Killian had dropped to zero, and the others were down to about 30%.

If he could muster up all his strength, he might be able to pull off one more attempt to kill Edith, but the risk of failure was too great.

‘The only thing I can count on now is the third exception condition, and I can’t let her meet it.’

Things got tricky.

I can’t let Edith meet the third exception condition.

But seeing how Edith fought Fred and struggled to survive, I think I’ll win this time.

Edith is human after all, and I don’t think any human can meet the third condition.

K smiled through clenched teeth.

***

Slowly, my vision brightened.

But I wasn’t awake.

‘I’m dreaming.’

I was having a lucid dream.

There was a dark door in front of me. I looked around and realized I was in some sort of aristocratic mansion.

‘Where am I?’

I wondered, and someone was coming this way.

‘Count Riegelhoff……?’

It was Count Riegelhoff, who looked a lot younger than he is now.

He stepped in front of me, pulled a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door I was looking through, and walked in.

I followed him into the room.

“Have you done enough reflection?”

“Yes…… I’m sorry, father……”

Oh……

Bloody hell.

This was not a scene I wanted to see.

Young Edith, who couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen years old, was sobbing, her cheeks puffy and a nasty bruise under her eye.

“Please forgive me. I’ll never do it again.”

As soon as she saw Count Riegelhoff, she dropped to her knees on the floor, rubbing her hands together and begging. [1]

[1] It’s not uncommon for Koreans to kneel down and rub their hands together to beg for forgiveness. They do this because the mistake they made was fatal.

I was sure that no matter what she had done wrong, a girl of her age would not have done anything to deserve such a beating.

But this family was strict only with Edith, and they would beat her severely for the slightest mistake.

Count Riegelhoff, who had been staring down at the shivering, crying Edith for a long time, berated her in an irritated voice.

“Edith. I didn’t ask you to sell your body, all I asked was for you to be a little more cute. What a disgrace, you missed your chance!”

“I’m sorry…… I’m sorry.”

“That man likes little girls, so I created a situation and opportunity for you, but you wasted it. Once you miss an opportunity, you won’t get it back!”

“Sorry……”

“Tsk. Useless.”

I wondered what the hell he was trying to get her for, but it turned out he was trying to get her to be cute in front of a pedophile.

Young and innocent, Edith must have frozen in shame and fear at the situation.

‘That scumbag! What did you do to your daughter?’

I can’t believe it.

I know this is set in a time when women were treated as property of the family, but to do this to your own child is beyond cruel!

While I was outraged, the scene in front of me changed.

Edith, who appeared to be in her late teens, was walking through the garden with a man who appeared to be in his late twenties.

He kept looking her up and down

He pointed to a bench under a wisteria tree and smiled. “Shall we sit over there for a moment?”

Edith smiled brightly at him, then nodded to her escort, who was following her ten paces away, but the man didn’t seem to notice.

Anyway, the two of them sat down on a bench under a wisteria tree, with the escort keeping a wary eye on their surroundings from a distance.

“Miss Edith, you look more mature than your years; it is rare to find a young lady of your age who can carry herself so well.”

“I’m not quite mature yet.”

“What’s wrong with being a little immature? You’re still at the age where you can be cute, hahaha!”

The man said ‘cute’ and patted Edith’s butt playfully.

But even though he was done talking, he didn’t take his hand off her butt.

Instead, he squeezed it a little harder, pulling her closer to him.

“Lord Valentine, there are many eyes.”

Edith slipped away and glanced in the direction of her escort.

The man licked his lips ruefully.

“Next time we meet, let’s do it without an escort. It’s so frustrating to be seen every time.”

“You’ll get in trouble with my father if you do, he’s too concerned about my safety.”

“Count Riegelhoff is overprotective of his daughter.”

“That’s because I’m still young.”

Edith smiled sweetly, then changed the subject to the current state of House Valentine’s affairs.

When she thought she’d gotten all she could out of him, she said she had to go, and her escort put her in a carriage and drove her back to the Riegelhoff mansion.

But inside the carriage, Edith was shivering all over, wiping her bare skin where the man had touched her with her handkerchief.

“Dirty…… dirty……”

Her behavior was not normal in any way.

She was in a cold sweat, unable to hold herself still for a moment, and wiping herself hysterically.

But the moment the carriage stopped and the door opened, Edith stepped out as expressionless and graceful a Count’s daughter as ever.

‘Count Riegelhoff has completely ruined her!’

My heart broke at the sight of something that could only have happened in a novel.

Strangely, very strangely, the image of Edith kept reminding me of myself in my previous life.

The original Edith Riegelhoff was a mirror image of Choi Soo-na, who was shaken by all sorts of anxiety, fear, and self-loathing when she was alone, but appeared to be fine in front of others.

‘It was Count Riegelhoff who ruined Edith, but who ruined Choi Soo-na?’

I felt like I was going to cry.

Then the scene changed again.

This time, Edith, who had grown to look almost exactly like me, was fidgeting nervously.

‘Huh? Isn’t this…… my room?’

She was sitting in the same room I am currently living in.

‘So this must be the Edith after she married Killian.’

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t look happy at all.

Her cheeks were sunken and the circles under her eyes were dark. Her empty-looking eyes stared into the air, and her lips were parched and thin.

Beside her lay a letter of unknown origin. The four corners of the letter were frayed and worn, as if she had taken it out many times.

– Dear Edith.

Sooner or later, our family will declare war on House Ludwig. We will win, of course, but just in case, we plan to attack the Ludwig mansion as well.

All you have to do is stay quiet and place a simple device on the back door of the mansion on the day I give the order.

The instructions are easy to follow by looking at the illustrations on the next page.

It’s not a difficult task, so you won’t make any mistakes, will you?

The letter was from Shane, and in her hand was something small and black.

‘That must be the simple device Shane mentioned.’

The device is to be inserted into the hole in the door frame where the door lock goes.

And before my eyes flashed scenes that seemed to be Edith’s memories.

Killian always looked at her with disdain, Killian only smiled fondly at Lizé, Killian began to pretend not to see her at all when Count Riegelhoff declared war on House Ludwig……

A single tear rolled down Edith’s cheek.

“It’s your fault……”

In a hushed voice, Edith blamed Killian.

She sat still for a long time, biting her lip, and when darkness fell, she rose like a ghost and walked out of the room.

Walking in the dark, she opened the back door of the mansion, slipped the black thing in, and closed it again.

From the outside, the door appeared to be locked.

Suddenly, the scene changed again.

There was banging, the sound of something breaking, a jumble of screams and yells, and Shane, sword in hand, was dragging the rebellious Lizé out.

“Retreat!”

At his word, the black-clad men who occupied the Ludwig mansion made their way out the back door.

Edith ran after them in a panic, then suddenly turned around and stared at me.

Unlike before, when she hadn’t recognized me, she was looking straight at me.

“Edith! What are you doing!”

Then, startled by Shane’s shout, she turned and disappeared again.

The dream faded just like that.

‘This is…… what happened that night that I didn’t remember.’

It’s what happened in the original story, and it’s why Killian was so enraged that he slashed Edith’s throat.

‘But Edith didn’t do it because she wanted to.’

I remember the look in Edith’s eyes as she looked back at me at the end.

It was clearly a look asking for help. It was a desperate, sad plea.

‘Don’t worry, Edith. I’m not going to do anything. I won’t die this time.’

I tried to comfort poor Edith, who was unable to squirm against the forces that oppressed her.